Flexible shaft-coupling.



l. F. BURTON, W. W. IVIOYEB L-L. Y. SQUIBB.

FLEXIBLE SHAFT 'COUPL|NG. APPLlcAloN FILED APR.28.1916.

` Patented Dea, M918.

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l (hl WITNESS MTTOWIWEVS l@ Camden,l county of Camden, and State of racr. nroiv, or rnrrAnnnrnrA,rn1vnsvrA, n wrnrrA w. mor

e fr. saciar, or*v cnam 'new anser, Asemno Y'ro vieron r i A cooArroivor w t i Application mail April 2t, thin. aerial No.' dalla.

To all 'whom t may concern.

Be it lmown thatwe, lsAAc F, Biberon, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of the city of Philadelphia, county of lPhila;- delphia,and State of Pennsylvania, Wm-

W. Mo, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of thecity ofCamden, 'county sey, and llmorn Y.' Somme, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of the city of New Jersey, `'have inventedcertain new and 'useful Improvements in Flexible Shaft- Coup cation.

Cnr invention relates to means and appa.-

gs, of which the following is a specii ratus 1n talln'ng machines foroperatively yoining a sourcejof power with the driven `members whereaction is controlled by a delicately adjusted governor. An additionalcharacteristic of the driven members is that they are required to rotateconstantly with entlre avoidance of alteration of speed. lln the use ofan electric motor as a source of power for driving a talking machineturntable it is veryA frequently the case that the source of electricalenergy is variable in strength of current and therefore the motor variesin speed over a considerable range of variation of revolutions unlesscontrolled by the governor. 'lhese variations take place and cease verysuddenly and` as a conse quence of this create a condition where the)governor .while regulating the speed ander ordinary circumstances ishampered in its action by' fact of the abru tness of increase Kanddecrease of speed of t e driving motor.

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An advantage of the spring jolning or connecting means which we. wish tocompletely describe is that it is proportioned as of and as well thedistance between coils so that when a sudden increase ofrevolntion istst upon the apparatus, the sprin itself becomes additiona y sioned andt en absorbs the additionalrevolutions by reason of the 'fact that whilethedriving end ofthe spring has additional force ap `lied to it the-driven end by the regulation o the overnor is held by the governor andtends' t erefore talkennp by thesp i o;

of Camden, and State of New der- P )tion will be performed to gage ofwire used and the coiling there to continue at the former s eed. 'lhusthe' bers.. :lt is not often that the driven members must be taken fromplace, but in the use of an electric motor it is sometimes necessary toremove the driving member (the motor) from place for examination, repairand ad- Ijulstment of brushes thereof. his between the driven anddriving members there are `no screws to remove and replace with chanceof loss and as the connection is almost i111-,A stantly removable withgreat ease, there is s as a. whole a manifestadvantage resident in theconstruction discovered by ns.

Additionally an advantage is that our spring connectionpositively-joins, with absence of slipping, the driving and drivenmembers., V

An important advantage is that we have overcome the necessity of havingthe driving and driven members in exact alinement for it isimmaterial inour improved construction that any small sidewise or vertical vdisplacement' of either the driving or driven members exists.` That iswithin the limits of the construction either mov' part lmay bedisplaced, at the same time t e capacity of the spring connection toadapt itself to all such displacement completely overcomes the edects ofsuch displacement for it will continue "to transmit the driving forcewith either end displaced from the axis ofthe other end, and allfunctions of the connecwithout any lessenin of ed'ectiveness.1

n the drawings accompanying this specification and relating theretoFigure 1 s ows a View from below of a base plate with an electric motorVpositioned thereon with the driven mechanism comprising the regulatingmeans also mounted on the bed plate thns forming a 'selfontained talkingmachine motormechanism. Fig. 2 shows a side view of the motor mechanismin elevationand attached to a motor Vboard or other part of thecontaining cabinet. Fig. 3 shows thev spring connection in detail,connected to its adjoinin parts which are broken away to conne t e viewto the immediate vicinity of the connection.` 'lhe spring connection yitself is sectioned for the mostlpart and as inav well a part of theconnected members. Fig.

4 shows the bearing of the driven member, the seating therefor, and thedriven shaft and the means-for holding the removable parts in place, forthe most part in section. Fig. A5 shows a slightly modified form of thespring connection wherein the internal diameter is less than theexternal diameter of the connected shafts.

The bed plate 1 is commonly attached to the under side of a so-calledmotor board which forms a part of the cabinet container inl which areplaced the various parts comprising a talking machine not shown in thedrawing. At one side of the bed plate is attachedthe electric motor 2suitable for the purpose in hand with terminals 3. 3 to which are joinedthe wires supplying the electric current. A short shaft 4 termedy thedriving shaft extends from the motor practically in alinement with thedriven shaft 5.

Extending between shafts 4 and 5 and connecting them is positioned thecoiled spring 6 the internaldiameter of the coils whereof ,beingsubstantially the same diameter as the exterior diameter of the shafts 4and. 5. The driven shaft 5 extends through the bracket 24 'in litsbearing 12 and extends to a thrust bearing 28 in the bracket 27. Theshaft 5 has upon it the worm 14 meshing with the worm wheel 15 upon theshaft or spindle 16 upon which at the upper end not shown'is mounted -aturntable.

For the purpose of regulating the speedC of the shaft 5 and spindle 16agovernor 17 with governor disk 18is mounted thereon. The action of thegovernor is perfectly well known, and the disk 18 thereof at properspeed'of rotation movesover to contact the pad 19 as positioned by thearm 20.

Referring to Fig. 3 the spring 6 is shown having the ends 7 and 11inserted in elon-` gated slots 25 and 26 inthe ends of shafts 4 and 5.The slots 25 and 26 are made of ractically the same dimension and extendom the end of the shafts inwardly as indicated and are cut through fromside to side of the shaft. As the ends of the spring 7 11 are seated atthe innermost portion of "the ends of each shaft, in the dr the slotseveral coils of the spring surround awings about 3 coils, 8 and 10 arein contact with each shaft.- Between the ends of the shafts the springcoils are separated longitudinally so that no contact shall be madebetween the coils and bv this arran ement the spring in its action ismore flexi le than it would be if the coils were in close contact.

Although the coils`8 and 10 of the spring 6 are held from slipping uponthe respective shafts b reason of the'ends 7 and 11, on account o thedirection of coiling of the spring 6 as placed on the shafts there is avery' definite action of the springs -to contract and grip the shafts 4and 5, and the resaca-f1 action of the ends'7 and 10 is not primarilythat of driving connections betweenthe parts, they serve to start thegripping action lncase anything tends to prevent it. Once the grippingaction is started it is maintained positively as long as the rotationcontinues.

The gripping of the shaft ends by the spring is occasioned by the factthat the spring isattached at each end so that when force is applied atendency to coil the spring is present at each end, that is the actionof other end the driven shaft 5 drags behind the springl 6 and thustends to coil or Wind up the coils 10 of the spring 6 in contact withshaft 5. Thus the springs are firmly connected to the shafts withoutslipping and with a minimumchance for breakage of parts.

In order to increase the gripping action of the coils 8 and 10 thespring may-be made with an internal diameter shghtly smaller than thediameter of the shafts as shown in Fig. 5. In this case the ends 7 and11v are inserted-in the respective slots 25 and 26 and the springs asthen held at the ends are slightly uncoiled. The action of uncoilingenlarges the internal diameter cf the sprinnr and as thus enlarged thespring is passed into the shaft at each end similarly so that and thespring immediately grasps" andfirmly contacts with the shafts.

In case it is wished to remove the motor or for another reason todisconnect -the shafts the spring may be readily and without toolsahnost instantly disconnected by grasping the spring in the positiondenoted by the coil 9, slight lforce applied to .enlarge the coils onthe shaft and then easily drawn off the shaft at one end or the other.By the above described action the spring is readily re-positioned forperformance of its functions.

Having thus described our invention, we claim and desire to protect byLetters Patent of the United States.: A

1. In a flexible shaft coupling between a winding member andra woundmember in a talking machine, the combination with the motor drivingshaft and a driven shaft, each having a peripheral slot near the endthereof, a celled spring with end portions bent at an angle, said endportions being posiinnata tioned in said slots respectively, the endllcoils of the spring overlping andA encir- V cling the ends of each shallt 2. A dexible shaft coupling between. a`

winding memberand a wound member in a talking machine, an electricmotor, a stub shaft driven thereby, a turntable, a driven,

shaft actuating the turntable, each of said shafts having a portionthereof removed -at 'its free end and its vicinity, a dexible 'actuatingand connectin member comprising a coiled spring exten ing between saidshafts and having its ends inserted inthe space of the removed portions,said flexiblemember extending around the shafts and operating ,toincrease the-strength of operative union between said shafts and saidconnection during the transmission of power by the shafts.

3. ln a sound reproducing motor mechanism a bed late to which certainparts are connected, orming a self-contained motor mechanism, anelectric motpr, a driving shaft extendingtherefrom, a driven shaftcoper- 'ating therewith and actuating .a'turntable for soundreproduction apparatus, a gover nor connecte to regulatesaiddrivingashaft,

each of said shafts being longitudinally lslotted from its'free endinwardly and opening into a peripheral slot, and connecting actuatingmeans constitutin Aa multiple conu nection between said shafts, saidmeans consisting of a coiled spring having deflected ends adapted to egesaid-slots in each shaft, the' deflected ends upon said spring memberentered in said slots, certain of the' coils of the springcontactinglpositively with the 'respective shafts, and. t e intermediatecoils being distended and normally noncontacting with each other duringthe transmission of power by said shafts.

. d. A .dexible actuating coupling between a driven shaft and the drivinshaft of-a4 motor for transmitting power, comprising in combination thevsaid shafts coperating with each other and a- Lcoiled sprin memberwhose ends extend over and are detach# ably secured to the end portionof the driv-A inganddriven members, the outside dimension of the coiledspring member at its over i lapping ends being greater than thediametric dimension o that portion thereof between the driving landdriven members.

' 5; A Hexible actuating couplin between a driven shaft and the drivings aft of a motorfor transmitting power, comprising in combination thesaid shafts coperating with each other, each of said shaftshaving arecess formed in the end portions thereof, a coiled. spring constituting"a .flexible actuating coupling between and with its end coils extendingover said driving and driven members and positioned in said recesses inthe shafts, said coiled spring having an o utside peripheral .dimensionat thev portion overlapping the'driving and driven memisc r. ation.V w1l H .l tl with.' nto Y. nomen 'db arger than the outside dimensions

